Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration – a different view

Cynthia Tucker, Editorial Page Editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has been writing from the left side of nowhere for many years. Recently she wrote of her “shock”, facetiously, that Latinos do learn English in this country. She refers to a Latino-leaning organization, The Pew Hispanic Center. I also receive their reports.

Tucker’s discussion of immigration is one of “why don’t we leave them alone and let them assimilate” to an “irrational diatribe” of “immigrant-bashing”.

She is wrong on both counts. I live in a community where consistently only about one-third of third graders are proficient in English on California’s STAR tests. The entire state is not much better. And let’s call the people who are unable or unwilling to learn and to speak English who they really are. They are by far Mexicans and most of them are illegal immigrants (aliens).

Atlanta has drained Lake Lanier dry and is crying for help from Tennessee because the drought is so bad. Illegal aliens here in California and much of the southwestern U.S. have drained public resources “dry” to the point that many emergency rooms are closed because of the deluge of non-payers who used those facilities for routine medical needs. Public schools are awash with non-English speakers and they do not seem to want to “assimilate” as they once did.

Many live in enclaves as if they were in Mexico. In fact, the president of Mexico recently has stated,
“In the name of the government of Mexico, I again issue an energetic protest against the unilateral measures taken by the Congress and the United States government that exacerbate the persecution and the vexing treatment against undocumented Mexican workers,” in an address to the Mexican nation.

If you think that language strange coming from Mexico’s president, you’d have to believe there has been a great misinterpretation by President Calderon that the U.S. Constitution and treaties between the two sovereign nations are meaningless

But that was not all of President Calderon’s quoted remarks that simply must be incorrect. “I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico”. Calderon continued. If he truly believes there is no border between the United States and Mexico, Americans have been traveling under the false impression for over 150 years that the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase Treaty (1853) with Mexico are nothing more than unenforceable pieces of paper.

If America is a nation of laws, it also is a nation of lines. Every inch of American soil is owned either by private citizens, businesses or by governmental entities. Every inch of it. Yes, every square inch of it is within a boundary and that within the sovereign borders of the United States.

To expect that persons entering this country illegally have some sort of property rights is not only preposterous it could become more than fanciful rhetoric to a friendly audience deep in Mexico.

And recently, Calderon blasted presidential candidates for competing for who “Can be the most swaggering, macho, and anti-Mexican”.

Of course, a proper interpretation of President Calderon’s seemingly outrageous words could erase what otherwise is egregious and non-helpful language.

Perhaps Cynthia Tucker could get an even better Mexican perspective, say, from Mexico’s president Philippe Calderon.

And we here have our work cut out to concentrate our schools on the learning, writing and speaking of the English language, the only official and unifying language of the United States of America.

Ernest Norsworthy

Am I in Mexico or California?

Calderon just doesn’t get it

Far be it from me that I should pick a fight with the president of Mexico. I hope something was lost in the translation that does not mean what recent news articles say President Felipe Calderon says about the U.S.

“In the name of the government of Mexico, I again issue an energetic protest against the unilateral measures taken by the Congress and the United States government that exacerbate the persecution and the vexing treatment against undocumented Mexican workers,” Calderon said in an address to the Mexican nation. (From a New York Times article.)

If you think that language strange coming from Mexico’s president, that the U.S. is taking “unilateral measures” to protect its own sovereignty and to make worse …”The persecution . . . against undocumented Mexican workers” you’d have to believe there has been a great misinterpretation by President Calderon of the U.S. Constitution and treaties between the two sovereign nations

But that was not all of President Calderon’s quoted remarks that simply must be incorrect. “I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico,” Calderon continued. If he truly believes there is no border between the United States and Mexico, Americans have been traveling under the false impression for over 150 years that the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty and the Gadsden Purchase Treaty with Mexico are nothing more than unenforceable pieces of paper.

If America is a nation of laws, it also is a nation of lines. Every inch of American soil is owned either by private citizens or by governmental entities. Every inch of it. Yes, every square inch of it is within a boundary and that within the sovereign borders of the United States and is protected by its laws.

To expect that persons entering this country illegally have some sort of property rights is not only preposterous it could become more than fanciful rhetoric to a friendly audience deep in Mexico.

And just today, Calderon blasted presidential candidates competing for who “Can be the most swaggering, macho and anti-Mexican” in and AP report.

Of course, a proper interpretation of President Calderon’s seemingly outrageous words could erase what otherwise is egregious and non-helpful language.

Ernest Norsworthy

E-mail: enorsworthy1@earthlink.net